The Henson Journals

[148]

Monday, December 18th, 1916.

868th day

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The bitter weather continues. There are reports of motor accidents, e.g. the Bishop's car skidded on the Prebends' Bridge, & lost a wheel, so that his Lordship had to return to the Castle at Auckland by train. The Revd David Cowling, Rector of Eppleton, came to lunch. He had been in charge of the English Church in Munich before the War, and gave us an interesting account of the happenings during the critical days before & after the declaration of War. He is very positive that there was no dislike of England in Bavaria. The Crown prince Rupprecht, he declares, is a wretched decadent, known to be such, and very unpopular. He and the Crown Prince of Prussia are fast friends, of identical tasks & habits, vicious & vulgar both. The main reason of Mr Cowling's visit, however, was not to tell me about Munich, but to beg my support in an application he is making for appointment to a Lord Chancellor's living. I promised to write to the new Lord Chancellor, and did so. The Headlams left after lunch. I was sensibly relieved when they had departed, & I could look back on a visit which had been unmarked by any untoward episodes! I attended Mattins & Evensong: went into the city & changed a cheque for £20: sawed up logs: and wrote letters. The Bishop carried off my copy of Dean Spencer Cowper's eulogy of Bishop Butler, which interested him greatly. He told me a story of Butler which is not without real value. A visitor to the great Bishop declared that he could not understand some passages in the 'Analogy'. "How often have you read the book through?" inquired Butler, adding that no one would be likely to understand it, who was not at the pains of reading it several times. The authority for this story is the Father of the present Bishop of S. Alban's.

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